Starship Zooms Back To No. 1

March 16, 1986|By Jan DeKnock, Chicago Tribune

What a difference a few months makes -- just ask Grace Slick and Company, who before last fall had never had a No. 1 single in all their years as a top album act, first as Jefferson Airplane, then as Jefferson Starship, and now as just plain Starship.

The song that established the Starship as a ''new'' Top-40 power was, of course, ''We Built This City,'' which held the top spot for two weeks last November. And this week the group proved that its singular success was no fluke.

That's because the follow-up single, the appealing ballad ''Sara,'' was able to move ahead of Mr. Mister's ''Kyrie'' as the most popular song in America. And that gives Starship back-to-back No. 1s within a period of just four months.

But Starship's days at the top may be numbered, because there is some strong competition moving up rapidly in the Top 20.

The biggest immediate threat is Heart's ''These Dreams,'' which moved from No. 4 to No. 2 this week and still has plenty of momentum. If ''These Dreams'' does replace ''Sara'' at the top -- and it probably will -- it would be a bit ironic, because Heart is another album-oriented group that has had a recent surge of power on the singles' chart.

But ''These Dreams'' will have to hit No. 1 quickly, because there are two superstar challengers in the Top 20 that could be champions in just two or three weeks: Falco's ''Rock Me Amadeus,'' which moved from No. 14 to No. 7 this week, and Prince's ''Kiss,'' which zipped from No. 28 to No. 15.

Pick hits of the week: The blistering ''I Can't Wait,'' a great rock-dance tune that uses Stevie Nicks' gritty vocals to advantage, and the bluesy ''Harlem Shuffle,'' which gets the Rolling Stones back on track after a number of so-so efforts in recent years.

Dud of the week: Dire Straits' ''So Far Away,'' which is a dud not because the song is bad -- actually, Mark Knopfler's laid-back guitar lines are as appealing as ever -- but because the timing for a song like this is just not right. This is the time of year when winter-weary music fans yearn for a few hot new sounds from their radios, and ''So Far Away'' is just too understated to make a major impact.